Web applications are becoming more popular for client/server communication. Web applications can be located on servers within an enterprise or online (hosted offering) and accessed by clients for a wide variety of operations. Document sharing, search, analysis, reporting, data mining are just a few examples of web applications. Users access a web application usually through a browsing application that enables them to select among available documents and/or services. During the interaction, a user may provide various inputs such as names of requested documents, services, etc. The user may also edit and/or view documents through the browsing application with the help of a user interface that is similar to one of a local application.
Pop-ups, dialog boxes, and task panes are user interfaces that may be used by a web application, but not necessarily in a consistent manner. The appearances of these user interfaces may differ. Furthermore, as the browser processes a navigation event, the user also processes the event and may be taken out of her current context (e.g. new pages being opened).